The weekend of September 12th/13th provided Jim with the opportunity to compete on the world stage, as the UK had made their decathlon an open competition, enabling competitors to enter from the world over. Athletes from as far afield as the USA, Finland and Italy came to Oxford for the championships.

Jim, competing in the 45-49 age group, set an Irish record in the decathlon scoring 3311 points, and finished 12th overall. However, within the decathlon he also set national records in the 110 metres hurdles and the pole vault.

Looking at the national records list you will see that Jim now holds 6 records across two age groups, the most by any athlete.